NOT AS GOOD AS THE BOOK

This album was my first exposure to The Tangent, and frankly, I'm surprised that their bio here seems to indicate that this album was a dissapointment (I may be misunderstanding the bio, as the same person who wrote that also rated the album a masterpiece). While I don't think it's a masterpiece, I enjoy it immensely.

The album begins with A Crises In Mid-Life. If you judge the entire album by the first track, you could be shortchanging yourself. While this song, despite outstanding production, is not much more than arena rock, the rest of the album unfolds to be quite a prog pleasure. The nest track, Lost In London 25 Years Later starts out like a classic Canterbury styled piece, but evolves into a Holdsworthian fusion jam.

At other times, it seems that Andy Tillison is channelling Peter Hammill in his vocal style. While Tillison's voice is much thinner than Hammill's he has the phrasing and inflection spot on.

And I just have to mention the two long pieces that make up the second disk. While these pieces are nice, and very entertaining, I can't seem to appreciate this trend to take whatever musical ideas you have lying around, and append them all into an epic piece. It just sounds disjointed, no matter who is playing it. Yes, I'm looking at you, Transatlantic and Porcupine Tree.

Still, 4 stars.